Yesterday was a crazy day! Also, very tiring. It was my first day back at the gym since getting sick. Full of excitement and very eager to get my sweat on I made a bee line to the closest gym to us in the morning, Les Mills. Without becoming a total spokesperson for the club, it was AMAZING! Seriously. First of all it is HUGE, there are FOUR cardio areas, 3 fitness studios (for classes), 3 ab/stretch areas, 3 weight rooms, and then there is a huge studio, that includes one of the cardio areas, which has enough room and hooks on the ceiling for 24 boxing bags!!!! It was insanity. The machines are also all brand new from Life Fitness (which is slowly taking over the world) and there were tons of windows, the place was great. First thing was first, I hit the treadmill. After about 15 minutes I started to feel really not good, my head was pounding, my skin was burning, and so I had to step off and cool myself down. I got on to the Cybex cross trainer (one of my favorites) and I stayed on that for 30 minutes, taking it easy, and it felt good. I guess I am not ready for the treadmill yet but I am hoping in the next couple of weeks I will be. Running is my most favorite thing, for stress relief, weight loss, fat loss, toning, the works! Running also really improves cardiovascular fitness aka your heart. It's also something that gives me a huge sense of accomplishment. After I finish an hour run, I feel amazing about myself and my body. I highly recommend running to anyone, no matter what fitness level. Start slow and work your way up, you will see a huge difference very quickly! I finished off my workout with some abs, lower back work, and light stretching. I didn't want to over do it on my first day, something I tend to usually do but these days I am learning to be smarter as I get older and less careless about my body.
Another thing I loved about Les Mills was the incredible class schedule. Less Mills has classes pretty much every hour. This is something I always hated about most gyms I've been to around the world (and I've been to alot!). Usually, the classes are either in the morning or at night and no in between. Les Mills offers round the clock, kick ass classes, including yoga, which was a sweet surprise. One of their classes was even tailor made at the University of Auckland for ultimate fat loss. Its called BODYPUMP and I'm definitely going to try it tomorrow. If you live in New Zealand or the Auckland area you should definitely check out Les Mills at www.lesmills.co.nz the gym is really high energy, always filled with motivated people and is not intimidating. There is even a womens only area including lots of cardio machines and weights, in case you feel uncomfortable in front of the grunting, sweaty, men. Another plus? The change room is super clean and has a steam room, sauna, and whirlpool. I feel like I know where I'll be spending most of my days from now on! Haha! I am just glad they have yoga everyday as well as the Body Balance class, which is a combination of yoga, pilates, and tai chi. I am so eager to try every single class!
While I was on the treadmill yesterday I was watching one man do what I thought was a crossfit workout; I checked the website,watched what he was doing, and figured out he was indeed doing the crossfit workout of the day! Crossfit is a great way to get in shape and its incredible for strength and conditioning. I used to be a skeptic about crossfit because the exercises aren't really too diverse and a lot of the stuff is repetitive; I am a fan of switching up workouts and not doing the same thing all the time, especially for my clients. However, crossfit does get you great results very fast and it focuses on both upper and lower body as well as your core. Crossfit also uses Kettlebells, which burn A LOT of calories very quickly, and provide a really great dynamic workout. Another benefit of the crossfit workout is how quick you can do a kick ass program. Those who are strapped for time can be in and out of the gym in under an hour. Some crossfit workouts can be as little as 25 minutes in length. Don't let the short time fool you though, you will be sweating and your heart will be racing very quickly. One of my really good friends swears by crossfit and his results are great; he's gained a lot of muscle and trimmed down his midsection quite a bit. Crossfit is for both men and women and there are even competitions, which are fun and challenging. Most cities have a crossfit gym with everything you need for the daily workouts and I hear its quite social as well. You can read more about crossfit and check out their daily workouts (free!!) at www.crossfit.com
Today I think I will try to go easier at the gym, so as to avoid the raging headache and burning skin. I will definitely be talking about the classes I try tomorrow as well as my new diet, which I have changed quite a bit since I will be working out again.
Last night I picked up some Snapper from the market. I let the fish marinade for a few hours in the fridge in olive oil, salt, pepper, and paprika. Before grilling I cut up some yellow onions as well as halved some strawberry tomatoes (my new favorite) and added them on top of the fish. It turned out really well, the paprika was a great addition. I really love making fish because its so fast and easy. You can grill it at 180 for 10 minutes and its perfect. My guy never really ate fish before he met me, he was more of a steak and chicken kinda guy, so this is all new to him. He loved it, which was great news for me because I would rather cook fish than chicken or steak. Since we live in a place now where seafood is super fresh and not shipped in from somewhere, this is also a plus. Tonight I'm going to be dining alone and so I've decided to make a big salad, including beets! I will be blogging about that later today. For now, I am off to the gym to battle the crosstrainer yet again and to make love eyes at the treadmill, I miss it :( xJ
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